mom2four: It's Christmas time!

This Christmas season was so much better then last years. Of course last years was spent in a house without anything in it. Although it was nice to have that simplicity that comes with all of your stuff in storage I enjoyed this one so much better. It is easier to cook a meal when you have all of the pans you need. Anyway I regress. This Christmas season started off with my favorite activity baking cookies. I baked them with my friends Julieanne, Marissa, and Erin. Unfortunately non of those cookies lasted very long at my house (the kids ate them ALL!) I made a whole new batch of cookies. I made ginger cookies with white chocolate chips in the middle, lime cookies, cherry chocolate cookies, snickerdoodles, baklava, white chocolate popcorn, indoor smores, peppermint cakeballs, lemon cookie balls, and white chocolate dipped candy canes. Yummy! It was a huge undertaking and I loved every moment of it. For family home evening we took them around to our friends in the ward. I took some to my Physical Therapist's office and to my podiatrists office. I now recognize the fact that that is not a common practice or I should say it is not a common practice when you are younger then 65. I told my friend about it and she reassured me that some of the people her husband works with (her husband is a dr) received cookies from their patients but that they were all much older then I. I told her that I went in to pick up my orthotics from my podiatrist and dropped them off which in turn started another old lady laughing fit from her. Love you Lesley! I attended many concerts ( 2 for Nichole and her choir class and 1 from Natalie for band) and 1 class party (for Ella's class. Tyler didn't have one). I also attended a ugly sweater party (as previously posted) and The ward Christmas party. I have been one busy lady.

Tyler is the second kid in on the left in the back row. Ella is in the back row too although very, very hard to see.

Ella has been fighting with her belief in Santa this year. She had been told many times by kids at school that there was no such thing as Santa. I assured her that the real Santa would be at the ward Christmas party. She was so excited to sit on his lap and was loving life until she saw "Santa" walking out of the church building in normal clothes and not his Santa costume. She came up to me furious and yelled at me about seeing him leave and took off down the hallway. I sat and talked to her about it. She turned to me and said "Mom look me in the eyes. I want you to tell me the truth, is there such thing as Santa"? How do you respond to that. I told her that there wasn't. She truly did not want to know (she told me that later) but she was very mad at me for lying to her all of these years. All f my other kids reacted much differently when they found out. Later that night when she was in bed I heard her crying. I asked her what was wrong. She proceeded to tell me that she was sad that there wasn't any Santa and that we lied to her for so long. I asked her if she would of us tell her the truth about Santa and her not have as much fun all of these Christmas'? She told me yes. Mind you I don't think I was in the wrong and I don't tend to lie to my kids very often but man it's Santa! I loved Santa and never felt betrayed by my parents for making the Christmas season fun for me by telling me there was a Santa. I told her that I felt bad for lying to her but I was also sad because a little bit of the fun of Christmas is gone for me forever because my baby doesn't believe anymore. She told me that it was ok that when I have grand kids that I can lie to them about Santa too. Thanks Ella.
Several days after finding out she would still cry about it and was upset. I was beyond caring anymore and told her that if she keeps it up then she isn't going to receive any Santa presents at all. She stopped.

For Christmas Eve this year we did things a bit different. We went over to our friends The Fisher's house foe dinner. We played some games and then went up to the tower to look for Santa. Natalie ended up going home early because she wasn't feeling well.

Then we came home and opened our Christmas Eve jammies and watched our Christmas movie. This year we watched Elf. Then the kids set out their chairs where Santa would bring their presents. They also set out their stocking, Christmas cereal, and fruit.

I made the kids Christmas jammies this year. It was a lot of fun.

This is Natalie's chair. She got from Santa, Just Dance 3, Scriptures and $100 for her Boston Trip. From Mom and Dad she got an outfit, book and boots.

This is Nichole's chair she got from Santa, scriptures, and ipod and gift certificates. From mom and dad she got clothes, boots and a book.

This is Ella's chair from Santa she got a camera, a mp3 player and an Easy bake oven. From mom and dad she got clothes, a book, and martial arts lessons.

This is Tyler's chair. From Santa he got 2 wii games, and scriptures. From mom and dad he got clothes, a hiking backpack and martial arts classes.

The kids had to wait extra long this year to see what they got because I was setting up Skype so that my family could watch us open up presents. It was fun to feel like they could be a part of Christmas morning.

For church that morning they combines the two wards that go to our building and held 1 hour church at 10:00. It was nice to have that extra reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.